Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago And Long Before eBook

am a turtle.” “Where have you come
from?” “From the hot salt sea.”
“What are you doing here?” “Bathing,
and enjoying the fine cool fresh water.”
“Be off, this is my water.” “No,
it is mine as much as it is yours.” “No,
it is mine, and you must be off.” “No
I won’t. I have as much right to be here
as you.” “Well, then,” said
the fowl, “let us decide in this way which of
us will have it. Let each of us go away, and
whoever is first here in the morning shall
have the right to the spring.” “Let
it be so,” said the turtle, “I’m
off to the briny sea; you go away to the village.”

The turtle was back from the sea, up the river, and
at the spring, very early in the morning. The
fowl thought there was no need to hurry, as she could
with one bound on her wings be at the rock;
and so she roosted till the sun was rising, and then
flew over to the rock, but there was the turtle before
her! “You are there, I see,” said
the fowl. “Yes, I am,” replied the
turtle, “and the spring is mine.”
And hence the proverb applied to the lazy and the late:
“Here comes the fowl, the turtle is before you!”

7. Here is another of these fabulous stories:—­There
were three friends, a rat, a snipe, and a crab.
They thought they would like to look about them on
the sea, and so decided to build a canoe and go out
on a short cruise. They did so, and when the canoe
was ready off they went. The snipe pulled the
first paddle, the crab the second, and the rat steered.
A squall came on, and the canoe upset. The snipe
flew to the shore, the crab sank and escaped to the
bottom, and the rat swam. The rat was soon fatigued,
but an octopus came along, and from it the rat implored
help. “Come on my back,” said the
octopus. The rat was only too happy to do so.
By-and-by the octopus said: “How heavy you
are! my back is getting painful.” “Yes,”
said the rat, “I drank too much salt water when
I was swimming there; but bear it a little longer,
we shall soon be at the shore.”

When the octopus reached the shore off ran the rat
into the bush. The octopus felt the pain still,
however, and now discovered that the rat had been
gnawing at the back of its neck. The octopus was
enraged, called all his friends among the owls to
assemble, and begged them to pursue and destroy the
rat. They did so, caught it, killed it, and ate
it, but there was hardly a morsel for each, they were
so many. And hence the proverb in exhorting not
to return evil for good:—­“Do not
be like the rat with the octopus, evil will overtake
you if you do.”

8. Here is a story of Toa and Pale, or Hero and
Helper.

The King of Fiji was a savage cannibal, and the people
were melting away under him. Toa and Pale were
brothers, they wished to escape being killed for the
oven, and so fled to the bush and became trees.
It was only the day before a party were to go to the
woods to search for a straight tree from which to
make the keel of a new canoe for the king. They
knew this, and so Pale changed himself into a crooked
stick overrun with creepers, that he might not be
cut by the king’s carpenters, and advised Toa
to do the same. He declined, however, and preferred
standing erect as a handsome straight tree.